Eskimos wide receiver Vidal Hazelton grew up surrounded by island music.
In Hazelton’s case, it was actually the music of Staten Island, which is only a 25-minute ferry ride from Manhattan or a short drive across the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge to Brooklyn.
“We listened to a lot of different genres,” Hazelton said. “You get a taste of all the different music and genres just growing up in New York as kids.”
A lot of that music had origins in the Caribbean islands. His father, Dexter, came from Trinidad and a lot of his childhood friends were from Jamaica “so we listened to a lot of reggae and calypso.”
The Eskimos’ roster is very similar to the melting pot of cultures Hazelton grew up around.
“It’s a diverse league in a diverse country,” slotback Nate Behar said. “It’s what makes Canada so great, makes the CFL so great.”
The Eskimos will celebrate that diversity on Saturday, Aug. 18, against the Montreal Alouettes. Game is time 7 p.m. at The Brick Field at Commonwealth Stadium and is presented by TELUS. Special “Diversity is Strength” shirts will feature former Eskimos fullback Johnny Bright, who came to Canada after having his jaw broken while playing U.S. college football and then stayed in Edmonton as a teacher after his football career was over, and Alberta Sports Hall of Fame member Joey Moss, who is recognized as an advocate for people with disabilities and his importance in the local sports community.
All-star defensive tackle Almondo Sewell spent his first 13 years in Jamaica before his family moved to Trenton, N.J. He has lived in Edmonton for the past four years and intends to remain in the city after his football career is over.
Defensive end Alex Bazzie was born in Liberia during a civil war in Africa, but his father moved the family to the United States when he was five years old, and he grew up in Silver Spring, Md. Twenty-two years later, Bazzie is now interested in visiting his native country again.
“To know that I’m from there, to know that there’s a lot of history behind it, I would love to go back,” he said. “Not only that, I’ve got a lot of family there who’ve I’ve never met. They all know of me. They say, ‘I remember you when you were little.’ I’m on the phone, and I’m like, ‘I don’t even know who I’m talking to, Mom!’
“I want to go back to be able to meet them, be able to see their faces, have them see me from the time when I left when I was so little to see how big I am now.”
Defensive end Kwaku Boateng, receiver Natey Adjei and offensive lineman Kwabena Asare all have traditional names from the African country of Ghana. Adjei, for example, is a native of Mississauga, Ont., but his given names of Natey Kofi mean “first-born boy” and “born on Friday,” respectively.
The middle name is supposed to represent the day of the week they were born, but both Boateng and Asare had their first and middle names switched upon immigrating to Canada. So Kwaku (born on Wednesday) and Kwabena (born on Tuesday) have become their respective first names. Boateng was originally named after his grandfather, Akosah, and lived in Toronto and Mississauga before moving to Milton, Ont., after Grade 6. Meanwhile, Asare moved to Brampton, Ont., when he was 12.
Meanwhile, defensive back Arjen Colquhoun’s first name means money when translated from the French spelling of argen.
“My mom said when I came out, I looked silver,” he explained. “I had like a silver complexion. She said I looked like money, so that was the translation.”
Rookie defensive back Godfrey Onyeka was born in Nigeria and moved to Brampton, Ont. when he was 11 while outside linebacker Christophe Mulumba-Tshimanga was born in DR Congo (or the Democratic Republic of Congo) and lived in Belgium briefly before moving to Montreal when he was five.
Both Colquhoun and Behar were born in Canada to parents with international backgrounds. Colquhoun’s parents (his father is from Jamaica and mother is from Belize) met in high school in Canada while Behar’s parents (his father is Jamaican, and his mother was born in Israel) met in London, Ont. when they were in their 20s.
“What’s really cool is I got to go to America and play in school there,” Colquhoun said about the United States. “I got to see how diverse it is there compared to here; then to come here and hear the American guys talk about Canada and how diverse it is and all the different people they see and different cultures and how we really just let them express it. It’s really shown throughout all of Canada. They really like that.”
Behar was playing football by the time he was six or seven years old “mostly as just something to do. My mom was like, ‘This kid has too much energy. We’ve got to help get it out somehow.’ And then I fell in love with it early.”
But a lot of these Eskimos came to football later in high school, including Mulumba, who played hockey as a youth until friends convinced him to try football when he was 16 years old. Boateng played soccer, just like his father and uncle, until a family friend suggested that he try football until Grade 9.
“I ended up liking it,” he said after starting out as a wide receiver but doing mostly blocking because his team just ran the ball. “But once I played defensive end, I realized that was the position I wanted to play. Just the ability to make plays without being dependant on someone else. When you play receiver or anything on offence, you have to depend upon the quarterback or the play call. On defence, I feel like you can go wild and just do whatever you please.”
Asare was cut the first time he tried out for his high school football team in Grade 12.
“The funny thing is, when I was coming over (from Ghana), I was crying about leaving my home, and my uncle was telling me there were so many great things you can do (in Canada),” Asare said. “ ‘There’s a great opportunity to learn, education and all that.’ He was like ‘You’re going to love football.’
“Originally, I thought he was talking about soccer because that’s what I was accustomed to. But as I grew up, I started learning about football. I’m like, ‘This is the sport for me.’ He knew me, and he knew how I was, he knew that this sport would be something that would benefit me.
“After a while, I kind of felt like it was fate that I got into it and I’m here.”
Onyeka also played soccer until Grade 10, then shifted to basketball in high school and finally tried out for the football team in Grade 13.
“I always knew what it was and I played with my cousins in the backyard, but I didn’t actually start playing it until Grade 13,” he said about football. “I was a tight end and a linebacker and a D-lineman all in one season.”
Onyeka thought his football days were finished after high school because he was going to college. But a friend convinced him to play summer football with former Argo Anthony Cannon (who played in the CFL in 2011-12) as a coach. Onyeka started at defensive end but switched to defensive back when one of the cornerbacks was injured. He played well enough to earn an invite to try out for Cannon’s seven-on-seven team, made the squad as a corner and met a coach from Wilfrid Laurier University, where he ended up playing college ball.
“It just worked out from there,” he said.